president obama spoke on the phone with house speaker john boehner on wednesday while his treasury secretary said the white house is, in fact, ready to go straight over the fiscal cliff. major garrett is at the white house. major, gd morning. >> reporter: good morning, charlie and norah. the president will cross over the potomac into northern virginia to meet with a family who says their taxes don't go up, they'll be happier and spend more money. that's the pr side of this. much more important, the context of the deal, keet players yesterday picked up the phone. phone call relatively brief and substantive. details remain elusive. it was shorter, sources say, to last week's 28-minute conversation described them as curt, direct and frank. no one familiar with this call used such barbed words. it also occurred before treasury secretary tim geithner laid down this harsh fiscal cliff marker. >> is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> oh, absolutely. again, there's no prospect to an agreement that doesn't involve those rates going up on the top 2% of the wealthiest americans